Peter Diamandis has always dreamed big.
Like a lot of Baby Boomers, he became fascinated with space exploration as a child watching Neil Armstrong’s 1969 moon walk. Unlike most of them, Diamandis never abandoned his dream. After earning a medical degree from Harvard, Diamandis enrolled in the aeronautics and astronautics engineering program at MIT thinking he would become an astronaut, one of the rare few with the right stuff.
By 1998, Diamandis was on an even more ambitious path. Convinced that the private sector – not government was best suited to to support space exploration, he established the X Foundation, a non-profit foundation, with the sole purpose of privately funding manned-space travel. In 2004, the X Foundation awarded a $10 million prize to Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen and famed aviation designer Burt Rutan for their streamlined, three-person craft, SpaceShipOne. SpaceShipOne made 16 manned flights before being retired, becoming the first piloted spacecraft not launched by a world government.
Today, the X Prize has expanded to reward “radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity.” A recent winner: Elastec/American Marine, a small environmental product firm in Carmi, Ill., for a cleanup device that can remove oil from ocean surfaces three times faster than is currently possible.
Diamandis’ new book, Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think, cowritten with Steven Kotler, acts as something of an antidote to the gloom that hangs over much of the world today. We recently spoke with Diamandis who offered five reasons the future is brighter than it’s ever been.
Beautiful Minds. Nature has programmed most of us to react faster to danger than opportunity, but entrepreneurs are wired differently. Where most see problems, they see opportunities. Diamandis’ new book spotlights the work of legends like Stewart Brand, Dean Kamen and Craig Venter now focusing their prodigious creativity on some of the world’s most difficult problems. An economic system that continues to reward those who take the greatest financial risks serves as incentive for the smartest – and most daring – of us to think big.
A Better Mousetrap. Today’s PC is yesteryear’s supercomputer. A Masai warrior’s cellphone has better reach and sound quality than that of an American president only a generation ago. That means that we have greater possibilities to collaborate, to capture and store mountains of data as well as to make sense of it in real-time. Given all that, today’s innovators can make smart decisions with blinding speed. The DIY Revolution. Small groups of committed individuals are tackling problems that previously only large institutions could take on. Diamandis points to the Arab Spring as an example of a cluster of people who’ve pushed for and created massive change. Again, technology – in this case, social media – plays a central role allowing the few to influence the many.
The Rise of the 99%. Diamandis believes “the bottom billion” is poised to plug into the global economy and become “the rising billion.” Communication technology and microfinance will drive what promises to be the largest economic and social change since the Industrial Revolution.
Power Philanthropists. When entrepreneurs like Bill Gates turn to giving, they’re not content to sit back and write checks. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has become a powerful force for global good by applying business strategies to philanthropy. It boasts a carefully defined mission, the best minds, and a willingness to critically evaluate its work and change course when necessary. Diamandis believes other “technophilanthropists” will do the same as they devote their minds and money to the world’s thorniest problems.
Big problems call for clever solutions. Many may come from a handful of – or even just one - great mind willing to think big. Diamandis has been in the business of rewarding those intrepid souls. His book is a powerful inoculation against doomsday prophesies.
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